PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Myriam Patricia Cifuentes
AU  - Laura Andrea Rodriguez-Villamizar
AU  - Maylen Liseth Rojas-Botero
AU  - Carlos Arturo Alvarez-Moreno
AU  - Julián Alfredo Fernández-Niño
TI  - Socioeconomic inequalities associated with mortality for COVID-19 in Colombia: a cohort nationwide study
AID  - 10.1136/jech-2020-216275
DP  - 2021 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
PG  - 610--615
VI  - 75
IP  - 7
4099  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/75/7/610.short
4100  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/75/7/610.full
SO  - J Epidemiol Community Health2021 Jul 01; 75
AB  - Background After 8 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin American countries have some of the highest rates in COVID-19 mortality. Despite being one of the most unequal regions of the world, there is a scarce report of the effect of socioeconomic conditions on COVID-19 mortality in their countries. We aimed to identify the effect of some socioeconomic inequality-related factors on COVID-19 mortality in Colombia.Methods We conducted a survival analysis in a nation-wide retrospective cohort study of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Colombia from 2 March 2020 to 26 October 2020. We calculated the time to death or recovery for each confirmed case in the cohort. We used an extended multivariable time-dependent Cox regression model to estimate the HR by age groups, sex, ethnicity, type of health insurance, area of residence and socioeconomic strata.Results There were 1 033 218 confirmed cases and 30 565 deaths for COVID-19 in Colombia between 2 March and 26 October. The risk of dying for COVID-19 among confirmed cases was higher in males (HR 1.68 95% CI 1.64 to 1.72), in people older than 60 years (HR 296.58 95% CI 199.22 to 441.51), in indigenous people (HR 1.20 95% CI 1.08 to 1.33), in people with subsidised health insurance regime (HR 1.89 95% CI 1.83 to 1.96) and in people living in the very low socioeconomic strata (HR 1.44 95% CI 1.24 to 1.68).Conclusion Our study provides evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in COVID-19 mortality in terms of age groups, sex, ethnicity, type of health insurance regimen and socioeconomic status.Data are available in a public, open access repository. Data used for the current study are publicly available as open data on the government website https://www.datos.gov.co/Salud-y-Protecci-n-Social/Casos-positivos-de-COVID-19-en-Colombia/gt2j-8ykr/data.